Reading week is the traditional period between the last day of classes and final exams that universities give students off to study. But at most schools, it's been shortened to one or two days. I guess Christmas had to get some of those 12 days from somewhere.

I have come up with a formula to see how many finals someone has: N = (days since last shower + days since last shave + times you used an academic reference to substitute for a punch line in the past week)/2

Studying for finals doesn't take that much time. It's taking the shrink-wrap off all my books that eats up my day.

Professors are not supposed to give finals during reading week, but many of them do in order to end the semester early. That way, everyone can make their flight in time for the holidays, when they have to explain to their parents why they failed all of their finals during reading week.

When you have a ton of reading to do before finals, it's really frustrating. "600 pages by Monday? That's so unfair. They should have given us more time to do this. Like three months."